ABSTRACT
Biomechanics may be defined as an interdisciplinary field in which information from both the biological sciences and engineering mechanics is used to assess the function of the body.
A major assumption of occupational biomechanics is that the body behaves according to the laws of Newtonian mechanics. By definition, “mechanics is the study of forces and their effects on masses”
(Kroemer, 1987). The function of interest in an occupational ergonomics context is most often a quantitative assessment of mechanical loading that occurs within the musculoskeletal system. The goal of an occupational biomechanics assessment is to quantitatively describe the musculoskeletal loading that occurs during work so that one can derive an appreciation for the degree of risk associated with an occupationally-related task. The characteristic that distinguishes occupational biomechanics analyses from other types of ergonomic analyses is that the comparison is quantitative in nature. The quantitative nature of occupational biomechanics permits ergonomists to address the question of how much exposure to the occupational risk factors is too much exposure.
